Rockland Reporter

Congressman Lawler issued the following statement today in response to the Biden Administration's pause of ammunitions shipments to Israel. "Israel is our closest ally in the Middle East and there should be no daylight between our two countries," said Congressman Lawler. "Israel has a right to defend itself, to rescue its people, and to root out the terrorism that claimed the lives of thousands of innocent people on October 7th - the worst mass murder of Jews in a single day since the Holocaust." "Israel is not the aggressor here, nor is it the true oppressor of the Palestinian people. That ignominy belongs to Hamas and Hamas alone," Congressman Lawler continued. "Yet, Israel is continually held to a double standard by members of the international community that far too often overlook the conduct of other countries with some of the worst human rights abuses in the world. That should come as no shock when UN employees were found to have direct ties to Hamas. What is shocking, however, is that the Biden Administration would buy into the lies and create distance between us and Israel." "The Biden Administration must immediately explain its inexplicable decision to Congress and reaffirm its commitment to supporting Israel, just as Congress did when we passed $17 billion in new aid to Israel last month and when the House passed my Antisemitism Awareness Act last week by a vote of 320 to 91," concluded Congressman Lawler. "As for me, I will continue to speak out with moral clarity against Israel's hateful detractors abroad and the scourge of antisemitism we've seen in our own country." New York's 17th Congressional District is just north of New York City and contains all or parts of Rockland, Putnam, Dutchess, and Westchester Counties.